Life Support by Firaa

[raw]
made by Firaa for LD32 (JAM)
You are a survivor. Aliens have infested the space ship you reside on. You are not a soldier. Your only weapon is a jug of gasoline and a pack of matches. But the longer you stay aboard the ship, the more dangerous things become - not only are the aliens slowly evolving, but your ship is running out of oxygen!

Gather all four power cells on the stage and bring them to the generator at the bottom floor to power the life support system. Raise points by defeating aliens, collecting the power cells, or collecting the food.

Controls:
Movement - Arrow keys
Jump - Control
Pour Gas - Space
Throw Match - Shift

Notes:
- Options menu contains a particle quantity toggle. It comes on normal by default, and most users can raise it to high.
- The game gets harder as you progress.
- Remaining at the title screen will progress to show the high score screen.
- Flames spread. Be very careful that you don't burn yourself.

Hint: It may benefit you to insert the power cells into the generator one at a time.

Everything included in this game was made within the available time by one person. This game was intended to be entered in the Compo, but an internet outage meant a missed window.

This game is currently available as a windows standalone and requires no installation.

Thanks for trying out my game, and I hope you enjoyed it!

*** Update ***
It has come to my attention that Avira/Avast detected this game as a false positive because of the way I compiled it (single executable for ease of distribution). This has been addressed by re-uploading the .zip version. This version also contains a total of three fixes:
- Fixed: no longer detected as a false positive
- Fixed: game-stopping crash upon reaching level 25
- Fixed: left/right keys not working on ladders, preventing the player from aiming throws

The old .exe download remains available for download for archival purposes.

If you can, leave a comment to let me know if you thought the game was too easy or too difficult. Let me know what killed you the most. It'd really help me fine-tune the difficulty in future work. The high score table default value for first place was just slightly lower than my highest score, and the fifth place entry was what I deemed to be a reasonable score for five levels.

Ratings

Coolness 53% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.37 386
Audio(Jam) 2.85 480
Fun(Jam) 3.18 428
Graphics(Jam) 3.31 514
Innovation(Jam) 3.34 351
Theme(Jam) 3.54 382

Feedback

GTA LUDUM V
21. Apr 2015 路 05:27 UTC
When on the ladder, it would be better if player could change direction to throw gas or match.
HolyBlackCat
21. Apr 2015 路 14:10 UTC
My Avast detects a `Win32:Malware-gen` in your game.
馃帳 Firaa
21. Apr 2015 路 14:57 UTC
Anyone have any ideas why Avast is detecting something with my game? I checked my .exe at VirusTotal and apparently Avira also doesn't like it, either, but everything else is fine: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/0f4c1d35e39db6054ea59995811ab838cfe08d74e9f3f2d5d557008abc74db03/analysis/1429627679/
馃帳 Firaa
21. Apr 2015 路 15:22 UTC
Nevermind, I have figured it out. It was the way I compiled the game. I was compiling it into a single executable for ease of distribution, and Avast/Avira was detecting it as a false positive. I have re-uploaded the zip file version of Life Support that was compiled in a different manner to avoid being detected as a false positive.
OnlySlightly
22. Apr 2015 路 00:15 UTC
This was really cool. I loved how you combined horror and arcade elements. That was an awesome mechanic and it worked even when I expected it wouldn't. I loved how if you kept pouring the gasoline while it was on fire it could follow the trail up to you. Really cool effects!
felipeberquo
22. Apr 2015 路 00:57 UTC
Looks like it's a good game! I liked the graphics based on the screenshots you took of it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to run you game (I'm using MAC OS X). You should consider later building a OS X and/or a web version! I'll come back later to play your game then :D
Looks like you've done a good job
BlakeB
22. Apr 2015 路 01:15 UTC
Amazing game, difficult though. Had a hard time getting past about level 4 with my poor platformer skills and my inability to plan my fires effectively and safely. I somehow missed the tutorial "cutscene" the first time through, so I was a bit confused, but caught it the second time through. Feels very classic, and that's a good thing.
The Capitalist Crayfish
22. Apr 2015 路 05:12 UTC
I like the gasoline mechanics and that it's similar to arcade or NES games.
humbleness
22. Apr 2015 路 05:49 UTC
I love this style of graphics and audio. I noticed no bugs except that if you place a fire over the spawn and die from it, when you respawn the fire will still be there and you may get killed a second time (although this isn't too much of an issue).

I like letting the players figure out the controls and the objective on their own
Gomango999
22. Apr 2015 路 06:08 UTC
This was a really good game! My only complaint was that the controls were took a little bit to get used to.
mockthebear
22. Apr 2015 路 21:09 UTC
putting gasoline then firew to kill? nice idea :o!
maunovaha
23. Apr 2015 路 16:10 UTC
This was fun little game. I felt truly enjoyed by killing to enemies with the gas and fire. Especially those weird butterflies :P What could make this game even better could be background music and maybe some configuration with the keyboard controls.? :)
herniewise
24. Apr 2015 路 23:03 UTC
Nice game!
sP0CkEr2
11. May 2015 路 04:41 UTC
this was fun - love the old school feel to it